The Power of Tapas: A Yogic Pillar

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about tapas (and I don't mean those cute little Spanish dishes you share with your friends for happy hour 😁).

In yoga, tapas is one of the pillars of our practice and it describes the "building of discipline and inner fire." And goodness, I think we do this well at MÖV. We learn to build heat internally with deep breaths and focused intention, and the external heat from our infrared heating system adds the extra juiciness my body craves (extra spice for me, please!) 

Thanks to a generous member, I was recently gifted a book by Max Strom called "A Life Worth Breathing," which has made its way around our ownership team. In the book, he writes,

"Practice tapas: develop a high tolerance for pain and a deep patience toward discomfort."

This quote hit me as the perfect description of what we do in our practice: we learn to sit with what arises and lean into discomfort. Of course, "pain" in some forms should be avoided and monitored. (Hint: when a knee injury prevents us from going deeper into a pose, we listen, pause, and edit without judging ourselves. This is true mindfulness.) But, when our bodies say "yes," we should also listen, even if discomfort arises. As Max Strom says, “a deep patience towards discomfort" will help us grow in every aspect of our lives.

In my own life, I know I've made the mistake of falling into the "comfort crisis." When things are hard and push me beyond my limits, I sometimes fall into thought patterns like "It shouldn't be this hard," etc. But why? Why do I assume that easy is the best and correct way? If I am listening to my yoga practice, I learn the opposite. It usually isn't the poses I WANT to do that impact me the most; it's the grit I find when I LEAN INTO what I want to avoid. That’s where so much growth happens. 

I want to learn to ask for more tapas in my life. I want to continue learning to lean in when I want to run, and I want to grow that "patience muscle" when discomfort calls me back into the familiar. 

Let’s practice this together, community. We all learn more when we lean in together.